Synology DS213j NAS Review

1. Introduction2. Synology DS213j NAS3. Synology DS213j NAS (Super High Res Gallery)4. The DiskManager Operating System5. Testing Methodology & Performance6. Acoustics, Power Consumption and Temperatures7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

We have looked at the Synology DiskManager Operating System many times in the past. It is one of the finest operating systems on the market for a NAS system/server, and doesn’t need a high specification list of hardware to run well either. The multitasking support means that multiple tasks can be handled simultaneously.

It is important to ensure that the newest software package is downloaded directly from the Synology website over here.

It would take a dedicated indepth review to cover all of the options in this software, but we will skim some of the options which we have detailed in the DS713+ review a short while ago.

Setting up a volume doesn’t take too long and the options available will vary depending on how many drives you have available.

Options are available for single volumes on RAID, or Multiple volumes on RAID.

With only one drive in our system we can only have a ‘BASIC’ setup.

This stage of volume creation is important. If you are using an older drive which you aren’t sure about, it is best to use the longer disk check and select ‘Yes’. Be aware this can take a serious amount of time, as the system has to remap bad sectors, if found.

The format process will vary depending on how many drives you are using and the RAID mode.

When the drive is ready, the system health will change to indicate a ‘good status’. This is a new addition in the latest revision and will help inexperienced users who may find the wealth of settings confusing.

It is important to set up a shared folder at this stage, so you can access the storage across your network from multiple computer systems.

The main settings can be accessed from the control panel options at the top left. The NAS will also flag updates and alerts top right.

The Package Center is the main area for downloading and updating the NAS, if you want to use third party software. This is a nice touch, although we found this panel rather slow to update for us. This section of the interface is expanding on a regular basis.

The main control panel window gives access to the main settings and configuration options. These are all labelled clearly and easy to navigate and find.

If you use a network of mixed devices then this panel is important, as you can configure Windows, Macintosh networking and the NFS service. FTP can be set up in a dedicated panel.

We recommend you give the server a unique name. If you have several Synology NAS systems in the same network, they default to the same Diskstation name, which means your Windows network will only see one of them.

The Control Panel has dedicated Media Indexing options. It can scan for multimedia files including videos, photos and music.

General Specifications

• Networking Protocols
• CIFS
• AFP
• NFS
• FTP
• WebDAV
• CalDAV
• iSCSI
• Telnet
• SSH
• SNMP
• VPN (PPTP, OpenVPN)

File System

• EXT4
• EXT3 (External Disk Only)
• FAT (External Disk Only)
• NTFS (External Disk Only)

Management

• Auto DSM Upgrade
• Push Notification – MSN/Skype/Mobile Devices
• Email/SMS Notification
• Customized User Quota
• Customized Administrator/User Group
• Syslog Support
• DDNS Support
• IPv6 Support
• VLAN Support
• PPPoE
• Hotspot
• Resource Monitor
• Connection Manager
• UPS Management
• Scheduled Power On/Off
• Custom Management UI HTTP/HTTPS Ports

Windows AD Domain Integration

• Domain Users login via Samba/AFP/FTP/File Station

HDD Management

• HDD Hibernation
• S.M.A.R.T.
• Dynamic Bad Sector Mapping

Security

• FTP over SSL/TLS
• IP Auto-Block
• Firewall
• Encrypted Network Backup over Rsync
• HTTPS Connection

Utilities

• Synology Assistant
• Synology Data Replicator

Supported Clients

• Windows XP onward
• Mac OS X 10.5 onward
• Ubuntu 9.04 onward

Supported Browsers

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Internet Explorer : 7, 8, 9
• Safari (MAC) : 4, 5

Language

• English, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Español, Dansk, Norsk, Svenska, Nederlands, Русский, Polski, Magyar, Português do Brasil, Português Europeu, Türkçe, Český, 日本語, 한국어, 繁體中文, 简体中文

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